In Franklin's anthems, women heard an empowering message

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In Franklin's anthems, women heard an empowering message

2018-08-17 13:08 Last Updated At：15:17

Aretha Franklin never saw herself as a feminist heroine. That, she quipped, was Gloria Steinem's role. But she leaves a legacy of indelible anthems that resonated deeply with women by celebrating their strength and individuality — and demanding, well, just a little respect.

"I don't think I was a catalyst for the women's movement," she told Rolling Stone in 2014. "Sorry. But if I were? So much the better!"

The women's movement was just getting going in 1967 when Franklin took on Otis Redding's "Respect," which soon became known as an anthem both for civil rights and for feminism. Franklin changed the song's meaning, radically, just by singing it in her own, inimitable voice. She may not have intended it to be a feminist anthem, but she surely knew how it would resonate. Instead of a man asking for his "propers" when he got home, here a woman was asking for — no, requiring — that same respect, from her man and in a broader sense, from society.

"'Respect' is THE second-wave feminist anthem, more than any other song I can think of," says Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the anthology "Women Who Rock" and professor at Loyola Marymount University. "Aretha was intersectional before the term existed." She notes that Franklin's version of "Respect" was the quintessential "answer record" to Redding's — in this case, with the very same song.

To music writer Caryn Rose, Franklin's message in that song was deliberate. "She knew what the message was, and she intended it," says Rose, who wrote the essay on Franklin in "Women Who Rock." Redding himself basically conceded defeat — with good humor — when singing the song at the Monterey Pop Festival. "This next song is a song that a girl took away from me," he said. "A good friend of mine ... but I'm still gonna do it anyway." It's hard now to imagine a male voice singing the song.

Franklin would later say she intended to convey a message about respect that was broader than any one movement. "The statement was something that was very important, and where it was important to me, it was important to others," she told Vogue magazine. "Not just me or the civil rights movement or women — it's important to people. ... Because people want respect, even small children, even babies. As people, we deserve respect from one another."

Franklin was, of course, the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987, opening the door for other women. But to call her the greatest female singer is to ignore that in the view of so many she was the greatest singer, period. "There is no one who can touch her," wrote Mary J. Blige in Rolling Stone, when the magazine chose Franklin as the top singer of all time. "She is the reason why women want to sing."

Though "Respect" was probably her most famous anthem of female empowerment, there were other songs of great resonance to women, like "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," written by Carole King. It's a love song, of course. But in Franklin's rendition, somehow it became, unmistakably, about womanhood. "It's celebrating in the gloriousness of being female," says McDonnell. "So yes, it's a feminist anthem, too."

No performance of that song was more lauded than when Franklin performed it for King herself at the 38th annual Kennedy Center Honors in December 2015. As is customary, King didn't know that Franklin would be there to honor her. She was overwhelmed from the first second. As for President Barack Obama, he was wiping away tears. When Franklin threw off her fur coat toward the end and raised her arms, the crowd erupted.

Asked later what the song meant to her, she told Vogue: "I can relate to it very easily. I'm very natural." But she said she'd never expected it to become an anthem for women. "Women just seemed to take to it like that, and it became a mantra," she said.

She did allow that she could see herself as an example for strong women: "You could say that," she said. "I am a natural woman. I think women have to be strong. If you don't, some people will run right over you." Franklin was even an idol for Murphy Brown, the ultimate career woman, appearing in a charming 1991 cameo to sing "Natural Woman" with the starstruck news anchor played by Candice Bergen.

Among other resonant Franklin songs for women, there was the 1968 "Think": "You better think (think) about what you're trying to do to me," she sang. "That line just resonates in terms of respect and how women want to be treated," says Gail Mitchell, a senior editor at Billboard.

And of course there was Franklin's 1985 duet with the Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doin' it For Themselves." The song announced: "We're comin' out of the kitchen, 'cause there's somethin' we forgot to say to you." It was covered by everyone from the Pointer Sisters to the Spice Girls to Lisa Simpson on "The Simpsons." And it was the rousing finale to a 2011 Franklin tribute at the Grammys, performed by Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams.

In the end, however Franklin chose to describe her impact on women, she left them words to live by — in the world, and in relationships.

"They say it's a man's world," she sang on her album "I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You" in 1967, "but you can't prove that by me. And as long as we're together baby, show some respect for me."

Online: For more, visit https://apnews.com/tag/ArethaFranklin

Venice tests a 5-euro entry fee for day-trippers as the city grapples with overtourism

2024-04-25 19:52 Last Updated At：20:02

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase that also designated separate entrances for tourists, and residents, students and workers.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, insisting that only a resurgence in the population will restore balance to a city where narrow alleyways and water buses are often clogged with tourists.

Hundreds of Venetians protested against the program, marching festively though the city's main bus terminal behind banners reading “No to Tickets, Yes to Services and Housing.” Protesters scuffled briefly with police with riot gear who blocked them from entering the city, before changing course and entering over another bridge escorted by plainclothes police. The demostration wrapped up peacefully in a piazza.

Tourists arriving at the main station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

Arianna Cecilia, a tourist from Rome visiting Venice for the first time, said she thought it was “strange” to have to pay to enter a city in her native country, and be funneled through separate entrance ways for tourists. She and her boyfriend were staying in nearby Treviso, and so downloaded the QR code as required, but she was still caught off-guard while soaking in her first view ever of Venice's canals by the sight of the entrance signs and her boyfriend telling her to get out the ticket.

On the other side of the entrance ways, workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station. Transgressors faces fines of 50 to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of overtourism, and officials hope that the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors, which last year numbered 4.6 million and is down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete.

“It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police set up one-way traffic for pedestrians to keep the crowds moving.

Residents opposing the day-tripper tax insist that the solution to Venice's woes are to boost the resident population and the services they need, limiting short-term rentals to make available more housing and attract families back from the mainland.

Last year, Venice passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park. You don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venice officials expected paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach about 10,000. More than 70,000 others had downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. Hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should provide a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

Venturini, the tourist official, said that interest in Venice’s pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities, and municipalities abroad such as Barcelona, Spain, and Amsterdam.

But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, doesn't see the fee as the cure-all. Neighboring apartments in her residential building near the famed Rialto Bridge once inhabited by families are now short-term apartment rentals.

The corner butcher shop closed. Yet she noted that the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for the traditional aperitivo, which can grow rowdy.

She was passing out mock European Union passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian Constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii. It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism,’’ Rodino said.